11-year-old Pennsylvania boy charged in shooting death

WAMPUM, Pa. — An 11-year-old boy shot his father's pregnant girlfriend in the back of the head while she was lying in bed in their western Pennsylvania farmhouse, got on the school bus and went to school, authorities said Saturday.

Jordan Brown was charged Saturday as an adult in the shooting death of Kenzie Marie Houk, 26, who was 8 months pregnant, Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo said at a news conference.

Jordan, the son of Houk's live-in boyfriend, was charged with criminal homicide and criminal homicide of an unborn child, Bongivengo said. The boy was being held in Lawrence County Jail.

The fifth-grader was picked up from school Friday by Pennsylvania State Police, who found Houk's body after her 4-year-old daughter told tree cutters on the property that she thought her mother was dead, Bongivengo said.

The boy had told police there was a suspicious black truck on the property that morning, causing investigators to look into a false lead for about five hours, he said.

Inconsistencies in Jordan's description of the vehicle led police to reinterview the victim's 7-year-old daughter, who implicated the boy in the killing, Bongivengo said.

"She didn't actually eyewitness the shooting. She saw him with what she believed to be a shotgun and heard a loud bang," Bongivengo said, adding that the weapon, a youth model 20-gauge shotgun, was found in what police believed was the boy's bedroom.

The shotgun, which apparently belonged to Jordan, is designed for children, and such weapons do not have to be registered, Bongivengo said.

The boy's attorney, Dennis Elisco, said he met Saturday with the boy's father, Christopher Brown, and planned to file a motion to have the boy released on bail and move the case to juvenile court.

Elisco and police said they had no motive for the shooting.

The attorney said Christopher Brown was "in a state of ... disbelief." There was no indication the boy had a problem with Houk, he added.

Bongivengo would not say whether the boy confessed to the shooting.

A preliminary hearing is set for Thursday.

Wampum is about 35 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.